Kentucky is facing a crisis of unprecedented proportions regarding the long term care needs of our elderly and disabled citizens. The public is invited to attend an open discussion with local legislators sponsored by the Area Agencies, AARP, and the Kentucky Assisted Living Association to be held at:

Christian Laettner reminds me each year that basketball season is here. It never fails.

Each November I get fired up because the NBA is in full swing and men’s college basketball is just beginning. So I make a trip to the basement to paw my way through dozens of old basketball tapes to spike my excitement.

Of course I have to watch the 1996 Kentucky team win the national title. I have to watch an old game of Michael Jordan playing for the Bulls. And I have to watch, gulp, that Kentucky-Duke game from 1992. I can’t help it!

Playing more games during the off-season than ever before and growing physically, the Eminence boys’ basketball team has matured from the final game in February to this week’s season opener.

In his second season as the head coach after taking over the program from Keith Blackburn, Chris Nethery has been very pleased with his team’s progression. The Warriors, who never before played a full summer schedule, played around 35 games during the summer and a majority of the players added around 15 more games with AAU basketball.

With no seniors on last year’s 10-15 squad, the Henry County girls’ basketball team returns all of its key players for another go around. Todd Gilley, who returns to the sideline as the team’s head coach, can already see a difference.

The Ladycats have four seniors, four juniors, six sophomores and five freshmen on the roster. They have more depth, more experience and have improved in most areas of their play, Gilley said.

One of the most challenging problems facing state government these days is our sky-rocketing prison population.

This decade alone, the number of inmates has risen nearly 50 percent, while costs have gone up by more than half. In the last fiscal year, we spent $450 million to house more than 21,000 prisoners, a population roughly the same size as our 17th largest city.

In January, the legislature’s Program Review and Investigations Committee began taking a closer look at the reasons behind this surge.

Jesus did not ask the blind man or the leper, “give me your silver pieces and THEN I will heal you.” Health care in this country is bought and sold at the marketplace for profit like any other private consumption good at the expense of human lives. Yet, we claim to be a Christian nation. 122 people die each day in the US due to lack of access to health care; that number is far greater than those who died on 911 and the death toll continues to rise. Where is the memorial to these fellow Americans?